Police to guard Survivor after hate threats
VJEWISH GROUPS have condemned as “disgusting and shocking” reports that an Italian Holocaust survivor has been given police protection after receiving threats from far-right fanatics.
Liliana Segre, 89, who called last month for a parliamentary investigation into racism and antisemitism, was assigned a police escort after receiving daily abuse on social media.
Security sources said that she was being accompanied by officers to public events and was not receiving round-theclock protection. She was made one of Italy’s five senators for life by the country’s president last year.
Paola Gargiulo, who works as Ms Segre’s chief of staff, told “It must be said that Liliana receives vastly more messages of support and solidarity than she does hate messages.”
But Karen Pollock, chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, said the situation was “disgusting and shocking”.
“That efforts to combat hate are met with threats of violence show just how much antisemitism continues to pollute our world today and how important education and awareness is in the fight against hate.
“A Holocaust survivor, of all people, should not have to face this sort of pernicious racism today.”
Far-right and nationalist parties abstained from a vote on her plans to establish a formal commission to investigate hate and antisemitism in Italy. The plans were nonetheless approved.
Israel’s president Reuven Rivlin said he was “appalled to hear that in order to ensure your safety, it was decided to assign you with regular security. Unfortunately, what happened to you is another
Liliana Segre with an officer last week example of the reality the Jewish people face in Europe today.”
Ms Segre was among the 776 Italian children deported to Auschwitz in 1944. Just 25 survived. She has dedicated her time in recent years to visiting schools to recount the story of the Holocaust.
Stefano Gatti, a researcher at the Centre of Contemporary Jewish Documentation, said antisemitism was rising in Italy, although at a lower rate than the rest of Europe. There were 190 antisemitic incidents in the first ten months of 2019, he said, compared to 197 all of last year.
VTWO MEN in Denmark have been charged with vandalism after dozens of graves at a Jewish cemetery were desecrated with graffiti over the weekend.
Several headstones in the 200-yearold Østre graveyard in Randers, on the Danish mainland peninsula of Jutland, were found overturned on Saturday.
84 others were defaced with green paint, although no specific words or symbols were discernible.
Danish police said a 27-year-old Randers resident and another 38-year-old man from nearby Hobro had been charged with “serious vandalism”.
Officials added it was their view that the motive of the attack had been to target “a particular population group on the basis of their religion”, and told Danish broadcaster DR that they were still appealing for witnesses. The arrested men were due to appear in court on Wednesday afternoon.
It was one of a number of antisemitic incidents in Denmark last weekend, the anniversary of Kristallnacht.
Local reports said a Star of David had been pained onto the letterbox of a family in Silkeborg, a nearby city in Jutland.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said the graveyard incident was “both an attack against Danish Jews and against all of us”.
“Our Jewish citizens must be respected and not live in fear,” she added, according to website.
The cemetery at Randers dates back to the early 19th century when the town was home to around 200 Jews.
Around 6,000 Jewish people live in Denmark today, most of them in Copenhagen.
Headstones were marked in green paint